Limited edition excerpt books for A Tale of Two Demon Slayers

Hi all,

It’s just come to my attention that the limited edition excerpts for A Tale of Two Demon Slayers have hit Ebay. Before you shell out money for one, let me just say that I have a few on hand still and since I want to take care of my readers first, you have dibs. Just send me a SASE big enough for the excerpt (at least 6″ x 9″) and I’ll autograph one to you personally.

I’m at PO Box 42, Valley Park MO, 63088.

Cheers,

Angie

The first rule of fight club…

Hi, I’d like to welcome Lisa Kessler to the blog. She’s an aspiring writer taking part in Paranormal Fight Club, a contest where aspiring writers battle it out to er…have me read their manuscript and coach them on it. Yeah, that part is kind of embarrassing. Fighting over the Fox. But it’s a great contest and I’m honored as heck to be the prize.

And now that we’re down to the final two, I thought I’d invite them both on my blog to talk. Only they must obey the Second Rule of Paranormal Fight Club – no grand battles in the middle of Angie’s blog. Do you know how hard it is to get vampire blood out of the drapes?

Hi Angie!
Thanks so much for the spot on your Demon Slaying blog!

I’m here to beg for votes…  ahem… I mean encourage readers to join in the fun of the Final Round of the Paranormal Fight Club!

What is the Paranormal Fight Club?  I’m so glad you asked!

Cue the Rocky fanfare

The Paranormal Fight Club is the newest writing contest sponsored by the Romance in the Backseat book review site.  We started back at the first week of October with eight not-yet-published paranormal romance writers.

We all began our tales with the same writing prompt, but every story developed completely differently.  Each week we posted a new chapter of our ongoing stories and readers voted for their favorites, with everyone battling for a fabulous grand prize…  A chance to have NYT Best-selling author Angie Fox critique our manuscript!

So each week the two writers with the fewest votes were cut.  And now we’re down to the Final Two.  (It is a Fight Club so think vicious!)

I’m kidding.  The camaraderie between all the writers in the Paranormal Fight Club has been inspirational.  I’ve made new friends and really enjoyed the exercise of pacing a story to have four distinct acts.

When I started this journey, two characters popped to mind, but they weren’t the ones I expected.  I thought I was going to write about vampires, but instead I wrote about Talia, a Princess from Summerland who crossed the Veil into our world to escape an arranged marriage, and Keth the man who broke her heart to save her life.

Across the Veil grew into a love story that I never saw coming, but that made it incredibly fun to write.

I hope it’s equally enjoyable to read too!  Stop by when you can, and don’t forget to vote…

Thanks again to Angie Fox for her time and the space on her blog!  And thanks to Romance in the Backseat for organizing such a fun contest.

Lisa Kessler – Across the Veil

Have book, will travel

First off let me say what a shame it is that when a book goes international, the author doesn’t necessarily get to follow. I mean, what if my characters get lonely? Wouldn’t they appreciate a visit? And shouldn’t I get to bring my readers along?

But even if we can’t go to Germany, The Accidental Demon Slayer is a new German release from Bertelsmann/Random House. Now they only have rights to the words inside the book (what I could give them) so they can’t have the cover that my American publisher developed. This is the new cover and the German title: The Demon Comes Alone.

According to a German reporter, it is a play on a German turn-of-phrase. Anybody speak German around here? Oh and notice how Pirate is in disguise? He’s now a black terrier. Wicked skull collar, though. You know he’s going to feel like a big shot in that.

Okay, here is a loose translation of the cover copy:
Cheeky women’s story with a shot of the fantastic.

A demon in the bathroom, a crazy Grandmother at the door. Lizzie had pictured something different entirely for her thirtieth birthday. Then, when her hyperactive terrier starts to talk to her, she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But she doesn’t have time for either because Granny immediately tosses her on her pink Harley. It turns out Lizzie has a hidden talent, one I don’t know how to translate without a dictionary. The hottie Dimitri is also aware of it, and soon he’ll need Lizzie to bring a Demon to justice.

A Demonslayeress, a talking terrier, and a Mann, as dangerous and sexy as a vampire…

And for those of you smarty-pants Deutsch speakers out there:
Freche Frauenunterhaltung mit einem Schuss Phantastik

Ein Dämon im Bad und eine ausgeflippte Großmutter vor der Tür. Lizzie hatte sich ihren dreißigsten Geburtstag anders vorgestellt. Als dann auch noch ihr hyperaktiver Jack-Russel-Terrier zu ihr spricht, weiß sie nicht, ob sie lachen oder weinen soll. Aber zu beidem bleibt sowieso keine Zeit, denn ihre Oma entführt sie kurzerhand auf ihrer pinkfarbenen Harley. Schließlich hat Lizzie ein ihr bislang verborgenes Talent, mit dem sie zur Feindin eines jeden Dämonen wird. Auch der attraktive Dimitri hat das erkannt. Doch schon bald braucht er Lizzie nicht nur dazu, Dämonen zu vertreiben …

Eine Dämonenjägerin, ein sprechender Terrier und ein Mann, so gefährlich und sexy wie ein Vampir …

Morning update

Hey all, I have good news and bad news this morning. First the good – I finished edits this weekend to A Tale of Two Demon Slayers. Yay! They’re going to my editor today after I look over a few last things (I have trouble letting go of projects because I know you really care what single word I used on page 211 and if I could have used a better word).

The bad news is that I actually sprained my pointer finger last night typing. Does this qualify as a work injury? I don’t know. I must have been having pretty much fun when I did it because I don’t remember it happening. But I sat down to answer a few emails this morning and – yow – I felt it. Worse yet, it’s not even a sexy injury so I can’t go walking around today getting sympathy for my pointer finger.

“I know you can’t see anything, but it really hurts!”

Not working – especially with any of my friends who, oh I don’t know, fight fires or teach thirteen-year-olds for eight hours a day.

Besides, I don’t regret it. I had a ball with this book. It answers a lot of questions about Dimitri, we learn more about what happened in the supernatural world before Lizzie gained her powers and Pirate even gets a pet of his own.

I’ll post the first chapter on the website as soon as I get permission from my publisher. Until then, thanks for reading!

How fun is this?

We have a cover for the upcoming book, A Tale of Two Demon Slayers. This is the third book in the Accidental Demon Slayer series. I’m really excited about it because we’re getting to go to Dimitri’s home in Greece, delve into his past and learn all kinds of juicy secrets.

The release date is set for January 26, 2010 and here’s the official back cover blurb:

Last month, I was a single preschool teacher whose greatest thrill consisted of color-coding my lesson plans. That was before I learned I was a slayer. Now, it’s up to me to face curse-hurling imps, vengeful demons, and any other supernatural uglies that crop up. And, to top it off, a hunk of a shape-shifting griffin has invited me to Greece to meet his family.

But it’s not all sun, sand, and ouzo. Someone has created a dark-magic version of me with my powers and my knowledge—and it wants to kill me and everyone I know. Of course, this evil twin doesn’t have Grandma’s gang of biker witches, a talking Jack Russell terrier, or an eccentric necromancer on its side. In the ultimate showdown for survival, may the best demon slayer win.

We have a winner!

A month (or three) ago, we celebrated the release of The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers with a contest. Take the Are You Part Demon Slayer? quiz and be entered to win a walk-on role in the next book. So this morning, I fired up the random number generator and picked a winner. Houston A.W. Knight will be a character in the next book! I have a biker witch slot saved up for you – you even get to use a blow torch.

Update from Angie

Hey all! My apologies for the lack of blog updates, but I promise you that no slacking has been going on at chez Fox. Oh no. I’ve been writing like crazy on not one, but three new projects. Yay!

Let me take this chance to tell you about My Zombie Valentine. It’s a new anthology and I’m really excited about it. My story is called Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo. It’s about Amie, a voodoo shop owner in New Orleans who decides to use a little of her magic to summon the ‘perfect man’ for her. Only her ideal guy just happened to have died one hundred and ninety eight years ago and has been residing in a vault in St. Louis Cemetery Number One. Oops. Imagine Amie’s surprise when her spell brings him back to his hunky senses and he decides to pay her a visit.

I had a lot of fun with this one.

Also, we’ll be announcing a winner soon for the “name a character” contest below. So if you haven’t signed up to win a walk-on role in my upcoming book, A Tale of Two Demon Slayers, now’s your chance.

Finally, if you’ve been craving a Kiss My Asphalt t-shirt, I have some new ones in and they are, as Pirate would say, fierce. I’m going to be giving lots of them away at a live chat this afternoon. Tune in anytime between 4:00 – 8:00 p.m. EST at Romance in the Backseat.

Are YOU Part Demon Slayer?

Sure Las Vegas is wild and crazy, but demon-infested? Lizzie and the gang are going to need all the help they can get. Test your demon slaying skill with the not-so-scientific, totally made up for your amusement Are You Part Demon Slayer? quiz. And, of course, with every quiz there must be a rocking contest. At least that’s my rule.

Post your score below and enter to win a walk-on role in my next book, A Tale of Two Demon Slayers, due out in February 2010. The contest runs through May 2009.

So:
Take the quiz
Tell us your score below
And you could have your real name (or a friend’s) appear in my next book!

The dog has done it again

Why is it that I blog (mostly) regularly for a year now, yet Pirate the dog blogs once and wins the “I Love Your Blog” award?

It’s just not fair, I tell you. I mean sure – he’s cute, and it’s fun to pet his belly, and he does ride a motorcycle. But what else does he have on this author? Plenty, it seems.

So here it is, Pirate’s fancy new award, courtesy of Bitten by Books.

Some doggies have all the luck.

Then again, I have the t-shirts. This weeks Kiss My Asphalt t-shirt winner is Christie Hollie!

Oh and stay tuned – I’m launching a new contest next week where you can win a walk-on part in the next Accidental Demon Slayer book. If you ever wanted to rub Pirate’s belly in person, here’s your chance. Along with it, (of course) will be a new fun quiz: Are You Part Demon Slayer?

Stay tuned…

A few words from Pirate the dog

Hiya! I’m Pirate, the most handsome Jack Russell Terrier you will ever meet. Now usually I stay in the background. I’m not an in-your-face kind of dog. Unless you have a turkey sandwich. Or chips or maybe a piece of bacon. I love bacon.

Now what were we talking about? Oh yeah. Angie is busy on her computer – typing away. Something about a new book deadline that I’m not allowed to talk about yet. But in the mean time, she’s neglecting her blog and that’s just not right. So seeing as I’m a talking dog and all, I thought I’d help her out.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from when I went to Las Vegas for The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers. The first one is a sausage sandwich I got from Jodi Maroini’s Sausage Kingdom. It was so good I think I swallowed it whole.

This here is the Las Vegas Strip. You’ve never seen so many advertisements for free buffets. It almost makes me wish Ezra the ghost hadn’t taught me how to read. But I needed to learn to play Scrabble, so…

This is when I found some free french fries.

And the babes in Vegas. Ohh ee. Now I barked, but I don’t think she heard me on account of how loud it is on The Strip. Isn’t she fierce?

And finally, this is my favorite picture of bacon. Notice how it’s all sizzly on the sides. Mmm…

Okay, there’s a squirrel in the yard so I gotta go. But before I do, Angie wanted me to tell you all that the winner of this week’s Kiss My Asphalt t-shirt giveaway is Blackroze!